Isn't Apple's stance exactly what the US government does: formally not recognizing Taiwan, while at the same time working with them? Everyone is a little bit angry, but nobody so much that they do something about it.
And as long as the US doesn't formally recognize Taiwan, "made in Taiwan" shouldn't even be considered formally correct in the US, even if the issue with Chinese enforcement around this label didn't exist
This is correct. The US does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country. The Taiwanese government doesn't recognize itself as a separate country from mainland China. I guess some people want Apple to have some US ultra-jingoist Opium Wars attitude to China that the US (aside from perhaps Pelosi) does not.
The whole point of Taiwan's stance is that "Are the people of Taipei/Taiwan broadly Chinese, as a matter of culture and national history?" and "Should Taiwan be free from the CCP?" can in fact be separate questions. To many Taiwanese, support for "Taiwan independence" would be tantamount to denying their history and self-experienced identity. A very real sort of oppression.
> To many Taiwanese, support for "Taiwan independence" would be tantamount to denying their history and self-experienced identity. A very real sort of oppression.
Source?
I have Taiwanese sources stating the exact opposite. The Taiwanese youth does not want to be seen as Chinese.
After WWII, Germany lost a large section of their Eastern Territory to Poland, and everyone from there was resettled within the new German borders. Those people were furious, and as a result German policy was to demand that territory back, and a refusal to recognize the new borders. A couple decades later a lot of the people who grew up there had died of old age, and the new generation had no relation to the old territory. As a result public sentiment changed, and Germany publicly recognized the new borders when it was politically advantageous.
Taiwan is probably going through the same process, just a bit slower since it's not just about territory but about national identity. Each generation weakens the ties to the old "Chinese" identity and strengthens a "Taiwanese" identity, until a tipping point is reached.
Nowadays both Germany and Poland are part of the EU, and people have freedom of movement in both territories. So if anyone wants to move to their "historical" homeland, they can easily do so. Interestingly, this is also partly the case wrt. the PRC and Taiwan, as a result of the One China policy.
Asking for sources while not providing the ones you claim to have is kind of ironic.
If you check Taiwanese opinion polls https://esc.nccu.edu.tw/PageDoc/Detail?fid=7801&id=6963 you'll see that there's a plurality of opinions. People who want independence outnumber people who want unification, but the majority prefers to keep the status quo, for now or forever.
I am not naming people I know personally, especially not in this context. There is no irony, I am telling you, that there is a Taiwanese source behind my statement. I would have been happy with the same statement from OP.
And as long as the US doesn't formally recognize Taiwan, "made in Taiwan" shouldn't even be considered formally correct in the US, even if the issue with Chinese enforcement around this label didn't exist